Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BUSH'EL, n. [Fr. boisseau; Arm. boesel; Norm. bussel; probably from boiste, boîte, a box; It. bossolo, that is, a little box.]

1. A dry measure, containing eight gallons, or four pecks. The standard English bushel, by Stat. 12 Henry VII., contains eight gallons of wheat, each gallon, eight pounds of wheat, troy weight; the pound, twelve ounces troy; the ounce, twenty sterlings, and the sterling, thirty-two grains of wheat growing in the middle of the ear. The contents are 2145.6 solid inches, equivalent to 1131 ounces and 14 pennyweights troy. – Encyc. The English bushel is used also in the United States. Bushel signifies both the quantity or capacity, and the vessel which will contain the quantity. But a vessel of this kind is not in use. The half bushel measure is used.
2. In popular language, a large quantity indefinitely. – Johnson.
3. The circle of iron in the nave of a wheel; in America, called a box. [See Bush.]